Fall River teacher fired over social media comments awarded reinstatement with full back pay, lawsuit in the works

A 22-year veteran teacher of the Fall River School District has reportedly won an arbitration case to get her job back after being fired over social media posts.

According to the attorney of Taryn Camara, a former teacher at Kuss Middle School who was fired over Facebook posts, she will soon be back on the job after winning an arbitration case last week.

Mark Gagliardi states that the “arbitrator’s award provides for reinstatement with full back pay within 14 days (October 1, 2021).”

At arbitration, Gagliardi says that former Superintendent Matt Malone testified under oath that he considered ALL of her Facebook comments (approximately 8) to be racist and that she was fired for ALL of them, which is a violation of her First Amendment rights.

Part of Facebook conversation in question obtained by Fall River Reporter

“For example, one of her comments referenced a crime statistic that blacks commit more crimes against other blacks than they do against whites, which is true. That is clearly protected speech. Furthermore, a plaintiff need only prove that the employer’s decision to fire her was “motivated, in part” because of the protected speech.”

According to Gagliardi, some of Camara’s posts were actually against racism.

“My client made 5 anti-racist FB posts in the days before the controversial post that lead to her termination supporting BLM and denouncing racial profiling, but the City was unaware of these posts prior to the decision to terminate her. The City should have asked my client to change her FB settings to public so the City could view ALL of her FB posts. Had they done so, it would have given proper context to the one controversial comment. The union should have done the same thing.”

Gagliardi feels that the 5 anti-racist posts that could not be seen by officials proves that there was no real investigation.

“(They) conducted no investigation into the incident and just sent representatives for my client to two hearings. Had the FREA executive board been presented the 5 anti-racist posts, they likely would have voted to support her arbitration. Instead, my client had to bear the full cost of the arbitration, approximately $77,000 for attorneys fees, the cost of the arbitrator and court reporter fees. We have made a demand to the union for payment.”

Gagliardi says that he is in the process of filing a lawsuit on behalf of Camara and wants the union and school district to be held accountable.

“The First Amendment retaliation and defamation lawsuit is in the works. There is going to be a 7 figure demand coming soon. This is what happens when there is incompetent leadership at the top and dedicated, long-term employees are tossed aside like old newspapers.”

We contacted Mayor Coogan for comment and he stated that it’s a personnel issue and at the school system level.